FootballTalk Podcast 29.10.25
Daniel Farke is looking forward to getting stuck into some proper projects in the next phase of Leeds United's development. To get there, he has a more pressing task at hand.
Now there is only one project a manager who turned 49 on Thursday can be concerned with: staying in the Premier League. Any points taken off Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday – Leeds have just three from their last nine away games against them – will help.
But in the longer term, the hope must be to do what Brighton have, and build a club.
With their glory days in the 1960s and 70s, a title under Howard Wilkinson and Champions League football with David O'Leary plus a much bigger fanbase, Leeds are working on different foundations.
But as numerous "small" clubs have shown in recent years, the past only counts for so much. Brighton have improbably become one of Europe's top-spending clubs on the back of shrewd recruitment, smart sales and steady on-field progress.
When Leeds last won there, in November 2009, they sat right on top of League One’s relegation zone, playing at Withdean athletics stadium. They won the title the following season to begin life in their new Falmer home as a Championship club.
They went up again in 2027, and after four seasons in the Premier League's bottom half, the next four have seen finishes between sixth and 11th, plus a Europa League campaign.
They have built using the legendary scouting database Tony Bloom is now also powering Hearts with, tapping into markets a million miles away – thousands if we are being literal – from those League One days.
HERE AND NOW: Midfielders Anton Stach (left) and Sean Longstaff have been bought to deliver straight away for Leeds United - and not just at set pieces (Image: ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)placeholder image
HERE AND NOW: Midfielders Anton Stach (left) and Sean Longstaff have been bought to deliver straight away for Leeds United - and not just at set pieces (Image: ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Today’s staff contains Gambian, Ghanaian, Japanese, Paraguayan, Ivorian, Brazilian, South Korean and Canadian players. Some are on loan (Irishman Jacob Slater, bought from Preston North End and lent to Harrogate Town is one of the less exotic), some like Diego Gomez, who scored four against Barnsley in this season's League Cup are learning on the fringes, others are first choices. Some may become a new Alexis Mac Allister or Moises Caicedo, others, frankly, will be duds.
Leeds simply cannot operate that way. Yet.
"My daily bread and butter is to concentrate on delivering short-term success," explains Farke, in his first season managing Leeds in the top flight. "I have to make sure that every weekend we are on it and we win as many points as possible.
"I can't just think about what will happen in three or five years but if I didn't I would not be top at my job.
QUICK FIX: Daniel Farke signed Dominic Calvert-Lewin (left) on a free transfer to fix a problem immediately, rather than invest more in a younger player who could possibly develop into something even better (Image: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)placeholder image
QUICK FIX: Daniel Farke signed Dominic Calvert-Lewin (left) on a free transfer to fix a problem immediately, rather than invest more in a younger player who could possibly develop into something even better (Image: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
"As a manager, especially once you sign a long-term contract, you have to think also about what will happen in a few years.
"We are a newly-promoted side and our focus is to make sure in this first year that we just survive and we need the players to survive.
"If you develop into more or less a mid-table team allowed to think about Europe, like Brighton, you can also, with the greater financial opportunities that come quite naturally, think about some other things.
"Brighton can afford sometimes to sign a project (player) and to spend a lot of money on the project. Sometimes it's a big success and it creates even a higher value but sometimes it doesn't turn out in the way you want.
INVESTMENT: Brighton and Hove Albion's £18m Paraguayan striker Diego Gomez is being eased into the Premier League despite four League Cup goals in this season's third-round tie at Barnsley (Image: George Wood/Getty Images)placeholder image
INVESTMENT: Brighton and Hove Albion's £18m Paraguayan striker Diego Gomez is being eased into the Premier League despite four League Cup goals in this season's third-round tie at Barnsley (Image: George Wood/Getty Images)
"We have to make sure if we spend (big) money on, for example Anton Stach, we know he will be an important player for us and he will deliver at this level. A project for us would mean signing a £1m 17-year-old."
Leeds' last promotion was a case in point, with a splurge of inexpensive teenage “projects”. None of Joe Gelhardt, Cody Drameh, Sam Greenwood, Lewis Bate, Leo Hjelde, Kris Moore, Amari Miller and Sean McGurk are in this season's squad.
The 2023 club record fee for Georginio Rutter – now at Brighton – had to be about instant, not long-term success. It backfired.
It is a world away from Brighton chancing £30m on Charalampos Kostoulas or £20.8m on Stefanos Tzimas, two Greek teenagers yet to make Premier League starts.
"Hopefully we will develop one day into an established Premier League side that can take similar decisions," says Farke.
"I'm already thinking about what is then necessary."
HULL, ENGLAND - JANUARY 21: Previous Leeds United "project signings" Cody Drameh and Joe Gelhardt are both now at Hull City (Image: George Wood/Getty Images)placeholder image
HULL, ENGLAND - JANUARY 21: Previous Leeds United "project signings" Cody Drameh and Joe Gelhardt are both now at Hull City (Image: George Wood/Getty Images)
Leeds' summer recruitment was laser-focussed on the here and now, addressing glaring squad deficiencies (though not all of them), making the team bigger and stronger and joining the fad for set-piece goals.
Five of Leeds' nine league goals this season have come that way. The extra height helps, but so has scouting dead-ball takers.
"I know Anton Stach can take a free-kick, especially a direct free kick," says Farke. "He has proven this already with a fantastic strike against Wolves. But I also like him to attack them due to his height.
"We also knew Sean Longstaff can produce outstanding deliveries. That played a little part in why we were so desperate to sign him. It played a role, definitely."
For now midfielders Stach – who started well but just seems to have had it temporarily catch up with him – and Longstaff are justifying their short-term roles. The bigger picture will have to wait.